(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has directed all barangay captains to restrain unvaccinated persons from going out of their homes amid the spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, saying that unvaccinated persons could spread the disease if “contaminated.”
The President said that unvaccinated persons who refuse to stay at home could be “detained.”
“That is my position and I continue to — I’m now giving orders to the barangay captain to look for those persons who are not vaccinated and just would request them or order them, if you may, to stay put. And if he refuses, he goes out of the house and goes around in the community or
maybe wherever magpunta, he can be restrained,” Duterte said in his latest Talk to the People on January 6, 2022.
“And if he refuses, then the barangay captain being a person in authority is empowered now to arrest the recalcitrant persons — that is in addition to the police power, the agents of a person in authority,” he said.
The President said that the barangay captain “can also mobilize civilians” and convert their status from being civilians into persons in authority so they can assist the barangay captains.
“They now become agents of a person in authority. That is my position,” he said.
Duterte said he would stick to this position even if this is unpopular.
He said as the President, he is ultimately “responsible for the safety and well-being of every Filipino.”
“That is why my orders are to restrain them. Hindi naman kaagad arestuhin. Paki-usap lang,” he said.
Those who are unvaccinated could be persuaded or prevailed upon to stay at home so that they would not get infected or contamimated, he said.
“Hindi ka nagpabakuna then you put everybody in jeopardy. You go out, you get contaminated, dalhin mo. Ngayon, per pamilya, per bahay ang contamination,” Duterte noted.
With the entry and confirmed local transmission of the highly infectious Omicron variant, the Philippines logged over 26,000 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, January 8, the highest in recent months. The positivity rate also reached 43.7 percent, the highest since the pandemic began.
Health experts noted that it takes only a “fleeting contact” for Omicron to spread.
(Eagle News Service)
